Murals

[JigsawAnalogy]

I'll start the discussion in this section with a project I'm still proud of, more than ten years later.

Back in '96-'97, I was working with AmeriCorps. One of the goals of our team was graffiti abatement, and one of the ways to reduce graffiti is to put murals up on walls. Whether because taggers are less likely to tag a wall that someone cares about, or because their tags don't show up on a wall that is painted a lot of different colors, people had found that walls with murals didn't get graffiti. Plus, a mural is more interesting and inviting than a long expanse of blank wall.

When I started, the team was working on a mural. They had spent months writing grants, hiring an artist, and making plans. It was a good mural, but it was really expensive, and took a lot of time, so it seemed like it was impractical to try to get more murals done around the city.

Over the course of the year, I started talking about how it didn't have to be nearly so expensive or time-consuming to get murals put up. I thought it would be possible to do a mural with donated materials, and that we could probably find artists who would do the work for free. My supervisor thought this was silly, and that it wouldn't be possible. Eventually, we kind of made a bet--I insisted it would be possible, and she more or less dared me to try.

So I talked with the other members of my team, and we started working on the project. We knew that our city's graffiti abatement program would give paint for free, so we talked with them about donating the materials for a mural--it wouldn't be much more expensive, and it was money they were already spending. They agreed. Then we contacted people at local art schools, because we figured that people just starting out as artists might be interested in having a place to display their work in public. Quite a few people were interested in this. Then we went around to owners of various buildings, asking if they would allow a mural to be painted on their blank, graffiti-prone walls. The owners were thrilled, because it wouldn't cost them any money, it would improve the appearance of their buildings, and it would be good public relations.

With all of the pieces in place, we managed to get several murals put up. Some were done solely by the artist, and some were done with the help of members of the community where the mural was being painted. My favorite was a scene from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, that I helped the artists to paint on the side of a bookstore. (here is a link to a picture of it) Shortly after this mural was finished, one of the artists got to paint another mural on the other side of the bookstore. Eleven years later, both murals are still there!

For me, the best thing about this project was realizing that it didn't take much money, or even much time, to be able to make a change I wanted to see in the world. Also, any time I go back to that area, I can look at those walls and know that I am the reason those murals were put up. People can walk by and see something that makes them smile, and they will never know it's because I decided to change how things were done. Two artists got a chance to have their work displayed for years, a bookstore owner stopped having to paint out graffiti constantly.... it was a simple thing to do, and it has had lasting results.